CDC issues federal transportation mask mandate
There's a new federal mask mandate from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC late Friday issued an order requiring masks must be worn on modes of interstate travel including airplanes and trains, at transit hubs, and on all forms of local mass transit, taxis and trains,.
This goes into effect beginning Monday, February 1st at 11:59 p.m. eastern time.
The mask mandate also covers ride-share vehicles and subways.
Not doing so will be a violation of federal law.
The order does not apply to private cars or commercial trucks being driven by a sole operator.
This mandate from the CDC follows an order from President Joe Biden directing agencies to "immediately take action" to require masks on transportation and at transit hubs.
Officials in the U.S. are mulling additional measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus amid fears over the spread of a more contagious and potentially vaccine-resistant variant first identified in South Africa, which showed up in the U.S. this week.
Even as more stadium-sized vaccination centers open up like the one in Boston's Fenway Park, America's vaccine rollout has been hampered by a lack of supply, something President Biden vowed to fix.
"I can announce that we will increase overall weekly vaccination distributions to states, tribes and territories from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses. Starting next week, that's an increase of 1.4 million doses per week. So this is going to allow millions of more Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated."
Masks and inoculation are just part of Biden's attempt to fight the pandemic.
International travel has been a particular concern with two other COVID-19 variants from the U.K. and Brazil spreading as well.
This week, the United States implemented mandatory COVID-19 testing for nearly all arriving international passengers.
But a coalition of U.S. travel related business groups and unions have urged the Biden administration not to extend mandatory testing to domestic flights. In a letter sent to the President on Friday, they said imposing new COVID-19 testing requirements for travelers on domestic flights "is unwarranted".
